Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Exclusive: Beijing ministers won’t speak to counterparts until Canberra discards ‘cold war mentality’, embassy says
Chinese government ministers won’t start answering phone calls from their Australian counterparts unless Canberra stops treating Beijing as a strategic threat, a senior embassy official has warned.
China is urging the Morrison government to make a clear decision on whether it sees Beijing as a “threat” or an “opportunity”, setting this up as a key precondition for resuming ministerial-level talks, which have been frozen since early this year.
When Steven Marshall fronted a press conference on Friday to give an update on day two of the state’s hard lockdown, his tone was grim. Someone had lied to a contact tracer, he said, which meant the state’s strict lockdown had been unnecessary.
South Australia reports three new cases in quarantine and lifts many lockdown restrictions. No new locally acquired coronavirus cases in NSW or Victoria. Follow live
If you’re still confused about what happened in South Australia, Josh Taylor has stepped it out in this report. He writes:
The state’s premier, Steven Marshall, made the admission after contact tracers further investigated a male with Covid-19 who claimed to have only picked up a pizza from the Woodville Pizza Bar.
A security guard who tested positive from the Peppers medi-hotel for returned travellers had a second job at the restaurant, and because the person claimed to have just been a customer, health authorities feared a wide range of people may have been exposed to Covid-19 through casual transmission at the pizza bar.
To Tasmania now, where a Hobart man in possession of enough fake luxury watches to keep Australia Post in bonuses for decades has been arrested by the Australian federal police.
More from AAP:
More than a thousand fake luxury watches and pieces of jewellery, a deceptive passport and 4000 steroid tablets have been seized by police from a man’s house in Hobart.
The 49-year-old is facing a string of criminal charges, including making false travel statements, after the Australian Federal Police raid this week.
Steven Marshall says state would not have gone into six-day lockdown if it had been known man had worked at Woodville Pizza Bar
South Australia’s six-day lockdown will end three days early at midnight on Saturday after it was revealed a male who tested positive for Covid-19 had lied to contact tracers over working in a pizza bar where another case had worked.
The state’s premier, Steven Marshall, made the admission after contact tracers further investigated a male with Covid-19 who claimed to have only picked up a pizza from the Woodville Pizza Bar.
Foreign ministry rejects calls by western security grouping to reinstate ousted pro-democracy lawmakers
China has rejected criticism by the Five Eyes alliance of its Hong Kong policy, saying it “should face up to the reality” that the former British colony has been returned to China.
Foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian was responding to a statement on Hong Kong issued by the US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, which together make up an intelligence partnership known as the Five Eyes.
“I see no other option than to issue you a custodial sentence for a period of two and a half years.” I still hear those words like they were said only yesterday. My stomach sank and my head spun. A million things went through my mind as I started having trouble breathing, and nausea set in.
I had never been to jail. I’d never had a criminal record. As visions of Wentworth episodes ran through my head, I suddenly had to pull myself together because shit was about to get very real. I was going to prison for fraudulent activity that I had committed under the influence of ice.
Retirement income review to emphasise Australians using ‘voluntary savings’, saying a lift in compulsory super rate would hurt wages growth
The Morrison government is laying the groundwork to scrap the already legislated increase to the superannuation guarantee, declaring the retirement income review has found current policy settings are suitable.
A summation of the retirement income review distributed by treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s office ahead of the report’s official release on Friday put greater emphasis on Australians using “voluntary savings”, including equity within their homes, ahead of raising compulsory superannuation contributions.
Australian special forces were allegedly involved in the murder of 39 Afghan civilians, in some cases executing prisoners to “blood” junior soldiers before inventing cover stories and planting weapons on corpses, a major report has found.
For more than four years, the Maj Gen Justice Paul Brereton has investigated allegations that a small group within the elite Special Air Services and commandos regiments killed and brutalised Afghan civilians, in some cases allegedly slitting throats, gloating about their actions, keeping kill counts, and photographing bodies with planted phones and weapons to justify their actions.
Strict six-day lockdown begins today to allow for a ‘contract-tracing blitz’ to contain a coronavirus cluster that has so far infected 22 people. Follow live
I married my husband in my early 20s, had two beautiful children: a girl and a boy. I was the luckiest woman alive. I thought I was blessed.
My son died at age 19. It devastated us. What had been a very close family began to unravel. My husband was diagnosed with cancer soon after and for the next few years we battled. After being told he did not have long, he began to take drugs. I joined him not long after. He passed away in my arms in 2011. My daughter had moved in with her boyfriend and was trying to build a life for herself, so I found myself alone, vulnerable and not coping very well.
Australian ministers urge dialogue to resolve dispute as Beijing says countries may pay ‘corresponding price’
Australia and Japan will “pay a corresponding price” if their new defence pact threatens China’s security, Chinese state media has warned, as Scott Morrison insisted the deal should not cause any concerns to Beijing.
The state-run Global Times newspaper declared the new agreement “accelerates the confrontational atmosphere in the Asia-Pacific region” and was aimed against China.
Insurance companies have lost a crucial test case on whether they have to pay businesses who shut their doors due to the coronavirus pandemic under business interruption policies.
The NSW Court of Appeal says they do, and has thrown out arguments from insurers that coronavirus is excluded from policies.
Meanwhile, a huge chunk of Darwin and surrounds is experiencing a blackout, with the temperature expected to climb to 35C.
Wide spread power outages affecting Darwin and surrounding areas. #DarwinNT Crew responding.
The South Australian government has announced an immediate six-day lockdown followed by a further week of tough restrictions as the state scrambles to avoid a second wave of coronavirus infections.
The lockdown will take effect from midnight on Wednesday after the Parafield cluster, which started from a hotel quarantine breach, grew by two overnight to reach 22 confirmed cases.
Passengers on the flight, which departed Doha for Sydney on 2 October, have told Guardian Australia there has been no direct contact with them from either Qatar Airways of the Qatari government in the six weeks since the incident took place.
Prosecutor alleges pair chased intruder down Sydney street before one pulled him to the ground and the other struck his head with a sword
A home invader who had been “armed to the teeth and full as a goog” with the drug ice was holding a gun at a woman before her boyfriend sliced his head open with a samurai sword, a Sydney jury has been told.
A picture “more bristling with menace” could hardly be imagined for a young woman of 23, the barrister Tom Hughes said in his opening address on behalf of Hannah Quinn on Tuesday.
SA will reintroduce coronavirus restrictions after the number of confirmed and probable cases rises to 20; NSW announces that residents will receive four $25 vouchers to spend on eating out and entertainment. Follow the latest updates
Returned travellers quarantining in an Adelaide hotel linked to a coronavirus cluster are being told they may have to re-quarantine in a new hotel, regardless of how many days they have already served.
It means some returned travellers may be forced to quarantine for up to 28 days.
Travellers quarantining in an Adelaide hotel linked to a Covid-19 cluster are being told they may have to re-quarantine in a new hotel. Those due to finish today may be forced to quarantine for 28 days. These documents were given to guests @GuardianAushttps://t.co/guSOkfaEWnpic.twitter.com/GrBY9211J6
It’s stressful, because they literally shove a letter under the door, but there was no knock or assistance to explain it to us ... People are due to leave this morning. Imagine being told you had to do it all again, imagine if you missed your flight.
Our room door has been closed since we moved in, nothing has been breached here. Moving us through and putting us on a bus, surely that brings more risk of spreading the virus?
The Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) lands (located in the remote north west of South Australia) will close their borders to for three weeks as the Covid-19 threat rises in South Australia.
The APY Board of Management closed the borders at midnight and says it will manage its borders via the legislated system of permits.